Principal: Child was ‘a joy’

Boy found in pool dies

Tragedy has struck not only a little boy’s family and friends this week, but an entire West Bay school community.

“Whenever someone dies, people only have very nice things to say about them, even if it’s not true,” said West Bay Primary School Principal Joseph Wallace. “In this little boy’s case, all of it is very true. He was simply a joy to have around.”

Principal Wallace is talking about 9-year-old Aemrwo Morgan, a student at West Bay’s Sir John A. Cumber Primary School who died on Monday at Cayman Islands Hospital.

The boy had apparently been playing a pool with a friend from West Bay Primary at the location off Walkers Road in George Town.

The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service put out the following statement on the incident Tuesday: “A [9]-year-old boy was found unconscious in a swimming pool at an apartment complex off Walkers Road. He was transported to the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town for treatment, but passed away yesterday, Monday, 11 February. Investigations are ongoing, but at this stage there would appear to be no suspicious circumstances.”

According to paramedics who responded to the scene, a resident in the area was attempting to revive the child with CPR when they arrived. CPR continued on board the ambulance to the hospital and doctors were eventually able to get his heart beating again.

“The paramedics were amazing,” said Dr. Delroy Jefferson, the hospital’s medical director. “They never gave up.”

Mr. Jefferson, who was on call at the hospital over the weekend, said doctors and staff treated the boy all day Sunday and indicated that although Aemrwo had a pulse, he was never able to become responsive.

Principal Wallace said Tuesday that Sir John A. Cumber Primary students were out of classes on break this week, but that measures would be put in place to help students, family members and teachers deal with the tragedy. He said school counsellors and administrators were scheduling an event Tuesday to assist.

He also said counsellors would make special effort to deal with the family of the child who was with Aemrwo and who may have seen what happened. “As a school family, we are grieving with the parents and children in this loss,” Mr. Wallace said.

Incidents of children drowning in the Cayman Islands are rare, but there have been a few cases in recent years.

In February 2012, tragedy struck a Bodden Town family as their 4-year-old son Aidan Cupid died in an apparent drowning accident. The boy drowned after falling into a brackish water pond located in back of the Silver Thatch Estates neighbourhood development.

In July 2011, a 2-year-old boy and his grandmother died after going into a condo complex pool off Smith Road. According to witnesses at the scene, the toddler was found floating in the pool and his grandmother was critically injured jumping into the pool in an attempt to save the boy.